This is Bird Note.

Writer and environmentalist Bill McKibbin has been pushing for climate solutions for decades.

Now in his 60s, he's reflecting on how his generation approaches a warming climate differently than younger folks.

I mean, if you're 25, well, this is like self-defense.

If we don't get the climate crisis under control, your whole life's going to be warped by it.

Look, I'm going to be dead before the worst of this stuff kicks in.

So for people my age, it's less about self-defense and more about kind of defense of more about your legacy about what you leave behind,

which sounds like an abstract concept, but really your legacy is the world you leave behind for the people you love the most.

Bill's working to organize people age 60 and older with his new group called Third Act to leave behind a better world.

And we do not want to be the first generation to leave behind a world that's worse than the one we found.

But that's what we're doing. I mean, if there's three billion fewer birds on it than when we were born, that's not good, you know?

That's a failure. And that's why we're doing what we can to try and correct it.

Here more of Bill McKibbin's thoughts on the realities we're facing with climate change on the Bring Bird's Back Podcast.

Listen to your favorite podcast app or at birdnote.org. I'm Tanaja Hamilton.